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How You Can Handle Objections with Leading Statements

Leading statements are not the only way to handle objections, but they are very useful in many situations.

Hey guys, Joe Thomas. We’re focusing this week on handling objections. That’s a tough thing for all of us, we face it all the time. The technique we’re going to focus on today is leading statements.

Now remember, there are multiple techniques to dealing with objections, and this technique doesn’t handle them all. For the objections that it applies to, it works very, very well. You’ve got to be prepared for this one.

Now, leading statement is all about leadership. It leads people to thinking differently, to opening up their minds. So a couple of quick examples. I was teaching a class not too long ago, and I asked the class, is there anything you would never do, or always do? Now what I’m looking for is real-life examples of somebody with a fixed position, a closed mind.

And a lady raised her hand and said, “I would never eat sushi.”

Now the response looks something like this: “So, sounds like the only way I could even get you to consider choking down a piece of raw fish is if there was some compelling reason, like say, a thousand dollars?”

She immediately said, “Oh, I’d do it for a thousand.” Now, I should have started at a hundred. It probably would have been better. This point is this: she went from never to, “Oh yes, I would.”

Now in that same class, an individual raised his hand and said, “Now wait a second. Let me give you something a little more serious. “I would never,” and he crossed his arms, he said, “leave my religion.” Now pause for just a second.

I said, “So let me see if I’ve got this right. Knowing that that’s as important as it is, and clearly you’re communicating this is of deep value, the only way you could even consider giving up something that near and dear to you is if, you knew in your heart of hearts it was the right thing to do.”

And he paused for a minute, and he said, “Well, if I knew that.”

Now, notice this: this guy went from an absolute never on something really critical to maybe, if there’s an option.

It’s not about changing minds, it’s about opening minds. OK? The two keywords in there are ‘only’ and ‘if.’ ‘Only’ and we fill in the blanks where we’d like the client to go. ‘If’ is the support, it’s the logic. It supports, and that comes from them. We have to have their kind of thinking.

So if an individual were to say, “Listen, I like what you’re telling us, it’s just your competition has a lower rate.” We would say something like this, “Look, the only way it would make sense to put the additional premium that we require is if you knew from your perspective you were absolutely getting the additional value. Does that seem fair?”

And it leads to a discussion about value, and where we shine, and where they get more for their dollar. So ‘only’ and ‘if.’ ‘Only,’ we lead to where we want to go, ‘if’ is the logic that supports it.

Now this requires practice. You gotta think through the objections that you run into and prepare for them. A client may say, “Listen, I’m really happy with my agent, I’ve been with him for years…” and we’d say something like this: “I totally understand, and I get that. I have clients just like that myself. The only it would make sense to even consider another agent, another policy of these other options is if it were in your best interest. If you could get more value, or save some money. Does that seem fair? Do either of those interest you?”

And it leads to a discussion, “Well, how would you show me that?” Or, “What are your rates?” Now it doesn’t guarantee that it resolves the problem, it opens up closed minds.

OK? So practice this technique today. We’re going to give you more on this and remember, there are all these other techniques, and when you get them all down and master these skills, that’s when you really get powerful in opening up minds, overcoming objections, and it’s not manipulation. This is a technique that allows and enables people to make intelligent buying decisions. That’s what it’s all about.

This builds long term relationships, it builds solid clients that are much more sticky, much more value exchange. Focus on that today, we’ll give you more on the next tip. Thanks for watching.